


Secret Chords

by 26stars



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bonding, F/F, Fluff, Gen, I'm getting better!, May can play the piano, Secret Skills, Skye can sing, What could possibly happen, omg look more fluff with no angst!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 16:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10193825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars
Summary: After a field test, Skye finds out a secret skill of May's--one that fits well with her own.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I know there’s a wonderful [fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3779332) out there where May and Simmons sit down at a piano together, and there's an AU fic out there where May is Skye's piano professor, but I was thinking today that I’ve never run across any fic fourth-wall references to Skye/Daisy (ahem, Chloe) singing, and you guys know who this fic was bound to end up being about…

It’s just a training drill, really, so this should be a relatively low-stress weekend. She’s four months into her training with May, and by now she’s earned a couple of gold stars for field tests, but her S.O. has been (somewhat unsurprisingly) persistent in pushing her through years of SHIELD training as quickly as time and Hydra will allow. So when she hears from her one morning that Coulson has given permission for the two of them plus Trip to head off-base for a couple of days, Skye knows the sound of “outdoor field tests” when she hears it.  

May drops her and Trip in a town somewhere at least an hour’s flight from base ( _Deerfield, Illinois_ , Skye saw as soon as she checked the GPS of her phone) before going on with the quinjet to an unspecified location. She and Trip are left with their standard outfits of gear and weapons and a manila envelope that contains the parameters for the test—Trip can answer questions but not do anything for her, he’s not to leave her side, he should only call May if it’s an emergency but otherwise wait for Skye to figure out the next step, blah, blah, blah—and the final objective: find May and the (cloaked) jet in the next 36 hours. (“Pretend it’s a hostage situation,” she had explained to them on the plane before she dropped them off. “As if you would ever be the hostage,” Skye teased, disappointed to see that it didn’t even earn a smile from May).

It feels a little like the Amazing Race, really, as she and Trip hop from town to town, dodging cameras (they’re still on America's/Hydra’s most wanted list, after all), hot-wiring cars, breaking and entering (no stealing, just picking up May’s previously-hidden clues), talking to strangers in foreign languages to get intel ( _when_ May had time to set all this up, Skye has no idea…), cracking a couple of safes and deciphering a few coded messages, bribing bouncers and bodyguards at a swank club that Skye is sure must actually be a Mob hangout, and trying and failing to track one of SHIELD’s best agents in her invisible plane.

They’re getting down to the end of their time limit by now, though, and the clock is ticking loudly in the back of Skye’s mind as she and Trip speed up a state highway after dark on the second day towards the last address they’ve narrowed down from three separate clues that had a code to splice together that turned out to be latitude and longitude, a place that happens to be a giant property just inside the Minnesota border. There’s some security to contend with around the property (nothing Skye can’t hack through in moments), but she makes her first big mistake when she doesn’t quite spot the dip in the gravel road that a cattle guard must have once covered, and one of the front tires of their not-made-for-Minnesota car blows out as they ram the ditch at such a high speed.

They’re within a mile of the house by then, and since the test didn’t require getting May safely out of the house, Skye decides they should just run it in rather than burning out the engine of their only guaranteed vehicle or wasting time changing the tire. The road isn’t lit, and there is barely any light coming from the large building when they finally approach it, but as they reach the border of the clearing around the house and split up the approach it on opposite sides, Trip reminds her that just because May was alone when she left them doesn’t mean the house is necessarily empty…

But she’s alone when they find her, perched casually on a lone sofa in front of a crackling fireplace in a nearly-empty foyer of the home (some forgotten millionaire's cabin?). Considering Skye has barely slept since they were dropped off the day before, she doesn’t let herself overthink it as she crosses the room, holstering her gun and calling out their location to Trip before throwing herself down on the sofa beside May and wrapping her arms around her in a brief, playful embrace. 

“Found youuuuu,” she mutters smugly, hiding a relieved smile in May’s shoulder.

“Just barely,” May reminds her with a humorless sideways glance as she nudges Skye gently away, lifting the tablet on her knees to show her the timer in the corner just minutes from running out.

“Still counts,” Skye says with a shrug, finally giving into her tiredness and yawning widely, scooting away from May a bit and sinking into the couch.

“Besides a tire blowout on the road in, she did great, May. You should be proud,” Trip says from behind them as he joins them in the foyer, holstering his own gun.

“Glad to hear it,” May acknowledges, standing from the sofa and tucking her tablet into her duffel, which is sitting open near the couch.

“I assume you left the plane somewhere around here?” Skye asks, looking around at the small camp set up around the sofa (looks like May’s been here most of the day, might even have slept here last night…). “We headed out tonight?”

May nods towards a few crates stacked along the walls of the room. “This is actually a SHIELD safehouse—they snapped up quite a few homes around the country during the recession. There are bedrooms upstairs, so grab some bedding and take your pick. We'll head back in the morning.”

“Done,” Skye says, immediately hopping to her feet and over to the crates with Trip. “Is there a working shower too?”

“Second door upstairs on the left,” May calls as Skye snatches up a couple of blankets and heads for the stairs.

The world outside the windows the next morning is gray, with thick rain falling from piled storm clouds and creating a majestic sound on the big, echoing house. Skye is surprised to see that it’s already close to noon when she checks her phone upon waking, and she immediately goes looking for her teammates, wondering why no one’s woken her up yet. 

She hears the shower running when she passes the bathroom, but two bedroom doors are standing open to reveal empty used beds, so she’s not sure who’s showering at the moment. Down in the kitchen, she finds a kettle and a toaster plugged in on one of the counters with a loaf of bread, tea, and instant coffee nearby, so she makes herself a cup of coffee and sticks two pieces of bread in the toaster. As she waits for her coffee to cool and the bread to pop up though, she slowly becomes aware of another sound under the pounding rain on the house.

Music.

Leaving both her toast and coffee on the counter, she moves back towards the foyer, searching for the source of the sound. She can’t make out the song under the ambient noise of the rain, but the sound becomes clearer as she moves down a hallway towards some rooms that she didn’t explore the night before. One door stands open to a room full of empty built-in bookshelves, but though the next door is closed, Skye is now sure of what is happening behind it.

Someone is playing a piano.

The knob turns quietly and the door, miraculously, doesn’t creak as she pushes it, which is a relief, because Skye would hate to disturb what she sees as the door swings open. A baby grand piano sits in the center of the room, literally the only thing in there. The blackout curtains are pushed back to allow gray light to slant in from three large windows on two of the walls, but it’s apparently not so the player can see her sheet music. She doesn’t have any.  

 _Of course_ May doesn’t need sheet music…

Her hands are moving slowly but deftly over the keyboard, pulling a song out of the instrument with careful touches. Skye stands in the doorway, awed, watching as May’s head and shoulders lean subtly towards the instrument with the beat, one foot steadily working the pedals beneath her. The piece sounds like something classical, which certainly isn’t one of Skye’s areas of expertise, and even though the tempo is slow, she’s amazed by how long the song seems to carry on, especially since May seems to be playing from memory.

Though this feels like something private, Skye can’t quite convince herself to leave, so she lingers on the other side of the threshold even after May hits a wrong note and the song tapers off. Skye watches her repeat the phrase with one hand, trying different notes and listening for the right progression, and once she seems to find it, she adds her other hand and continues the song, this time moving through what sounds like an understated finale to a quiet conclusion. May’s fingertips linger on the keys, sustaining the final chord for a long moment until she finally releases it into the quiet of the room. The sound of the rain expands and fills the room again, cushioning the sudden silence, and Skye is so transfixed that she actually jumps when May suddenly turns around and looks at her.

“Sorry,” Skye says immediately, taking a step back. “I was just…”

But May doesn’t actually look offended, her expression softening slightly as she sees Skye. Still, she stands quickly, reaching over and dropping the cover over the keyboard before moving towards Skye—towards the door.

“So you’re finally up,” May says. “I was going to wake you two up earlier but Coulson said we didn’t need to rush back—“

“What else can you play?”

Skye asks it quickly, before May gets too close to the door, which she suddenly feels the impulse to block. May pauses, quirking a brow at Skye, and she takes this as permission to ask again.

“Whatever you were playing—that was beautiful. And you’re not going to convince me that you’re some one-trick pony, so what else can you play?”

Skye does crowd through the door now, stopping just inside it, where May would have to shove her a little if she wanted to actually get out, but she stares at May hopefully, something joyful singing in her chest. Her S.O. seems the tiniest bit conflicted, but she glances back towards the piano without continuing towards the door.

“Like I said, this used to be a civilian house, but SHIELD bought it a few years ago to use as a safehouse. I’m betting they scrapped a lot of the furniture, but someone had enough respect to leave the piano…or maybe they thought it was just too much of a pain to move. I found it while I was waiting for you all yesterday and tried tuning it, but…”

“It was beautiful, whatever you were playing,” Skye insists, stepping barely closer to May.

“It was the Moonlight Sonata,” May answers, still staring at the piano instead of looking at Skye. “I can only remember the first movement, though.”

Skye realizes that this is where she can badger May to tell her about how many years she took lessons, how old she was when she started, when and why she quit playing (or if she still does), but she also realizes that those are questions she can ask later, questions that would break the spell right now.

“Can you play ‘Vienna’?” she asks instead, putting as much hope as she can into her voice. 

She feels instantly optimistic when May looks back at her, seeming surprised. “The Billy Joel song?” her S.O. asks. “That’s a little before your time.”

“Can you?” Skye repeats, holding herself back from moving closer, and holding her breath while she’s at it.

When May gives her a long look before moving back to the piano and lifting the cover again, Skye finally lets herself exhale and follow her to the bench.

May’s hands touch the keyboard carefully as she sits down again and Skye stands to the side, not directly over her shoulder, watching as she tries a few chords, listening for the right ones.

“I never had sheet music for this one,” May says, seemingly to herself, as she tries a few notes. “I’m just playing by ear.”

Skye doesn’t say anything, letting the magic come back into the room. May tries a few more chords with her left hand before adding her right hand, striking the recognizable first three notes of the high part before adding the steady base with her left hand, the song weaving together in the air above the piano. Skye grins to herself as May plays the opening, filling the room with sound again, but as she segues into the first verse, Skye is aware of something missing.

A couple of beats in, May abruptly stops and pulls her hands away from the keys.

“I can’t sing,” she says, almost apologetically, not looking at Skye. “I don’t…”

“Can I?” Skye interrupts quietly. May looks over at her, saying neither yes nor no, but Skye bravely closes the distance between them and perches on the edge of the piano bench at May’s elbow. “Go ahead,” encourages quietly, looking at the keys, and May finally places her hands back on them.

The opening blends together again, the gentle stroking of the bass chords and the almost whimsical treble part above it, meeting finally in the middle at the root chord, which Skye hums softly to herself to find the key before beginning the first verse in a quiet voice.

“ _Slow down, you crazy child…You're so ambitious for a juvenile…But then if you're so smart, then tell me why are you still so afraid?”_

She feels May glance at her once, but Skye just keeps her eyes on May’s hands and keeps going.

“ _Where's the fire, what's the hurry about? You'd better cool it off before you burn it out. You've got so much to do, and only so many hours in a day…”_

She thinks she can hear May humming along beside her, but maybe she just _wants_ to hear that…

“ _But you know that when the truth is told, that you can get what you want, or you can just get old…You're gonna kick off before you even get halfway through…mmm, when will you realize, Vienna waits for you?”_

May plays the whole song—both verses, both choruses, and the bridge—and though she feels her voice gain a little strength as the song continues, Skye keeps her eyes on the keyboard the whole time. When the last chord is fading into the air again, May looks fully over at her as she releases the keys, and Skye cautiously faces her.

“I didn’t know you could sing,” her S.O. says, and there is something in her eyes that Skye hasn’t seen before, something that makes her unafraid to meet May's eyes and smile warmly.

“I didn’t know you could play,” she returns, and for a brief moment, she thinks May might be about to smile back. But instead, the woman looks back down at the keyboard and puts her hands on another chord.

“Do you know ‘Hallelujah’?” May asks, playing the mournful opening of a song that Skye does indeed know well. She smiles as she waits for her entrance and lets the first verse be her answer. 

“ _I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord, but you don’t really care for music, do you?”_

They’re halfway through “Make You Feel My Love” when they hear Trip coming down the hall looking for them. But May doesn’t stop until the song is over, so Skye doesn’t either. 


End file.
